Chinese gibbon species declared extinct.

May 2008. A gibbon subspecies from China's Yunnan province has been declared extinct by a Chinese-Swiss research team. The white-handed, or lar gibbon, Hylobates lar, was last observed in 1988 in the Nangunhe Nature Reserve in south-western Yunnan province, and the loud, melodious calls of this species of ape were last heard in Yunnan in 1992.

Habitat destruction

After two weeks of recent field work, the 14 member team of scientists assembled by anthropologists from Zurich University concluded that as a result of continued forest destruction, fragmentation and deterioration as well as hunting, this gibbon species no longer exists in Yunnan.

The scientific team surveyed all Chinese forests that ever had reported supporting white-handed gibbons at any time during the last 20 years, but no trace of the animals was found. This subspecies, Hylobates lar yunnanensis, is not known from any other place.

"This loss is particularly tragic," says anthropologist Thomas Geissmann, "because the extinct Chinese population was described as a distinct subspecies, the so-called Yunnan white-handed gibbon."

Geissmann says that the last hope for the Yunnan white-handed gibbon subspecies is in neighbouring Myanmar, but so far, he has no evidence of this.

"The extinction of the Chinese white-handed gibbon is an urgent alarm signal, because several other ape species in China are also endangered by extinction," says Geissmann.

Three more gibbon species on the brink

For instance, the white-cheeked crested gibbon, Nomascus leucogenys, has not been sighted in China since the 1980s. There are fewer than 50 individuals of the Cao-Vit crested gibbon, Nomascus nasutus, remaining. They are found in China's Guangxi province and Cao Bang province in Vietnam. The most endangered remaining gibbon is the Hainan crested gibbon, Nomascus hainanus, on the south Chinese island of Hainan. Fewer than 20 individuals are left in the wild.

Unprecedented wave of extinctions

The Chinese-Swiss team of scientists warns that the loss of the Yunnan white-handed gibbons may be the beginning of an unprecedented wave of extinctions which threatens to terminate the existence of most Chinese ape species.

Geissmann says, "We hope that our research results will alarm the Chinese government as well as international conservation agencies and encourage them to initiate immediate efforts to save China's last surviving apes."

The team included scientists who are members of the Gibbon Conservation Alliance based at Zurich University, and the Kunming Institute of Zoology, as well as staff members of the Nangunhe National Nature Reserve